


Oh, how fast things change

by kurojiri



Series: Iron Man Bingo 2019 Fills [12]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animals, Alternate Universe - Birds, Alternate Universe - Not Human, Alternate Universe - Pigeons, Birds, Gen, Iron Man Bingo 2019, Is this considered crack?, Minor Character Death, Pigeon Tony, Pigeons, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric, cuz Tony is a dad, its peter's parents in the beginning, its the circle of life, oh well, sorry - Freeform, squab Peter, technically its still irondad, this is a pigeons iron dad au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 06:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18231482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurojiri/pseuds/kurojiri
Summary: It had started out as a normal day.





	Oh, how fast things change

**Author's Note:**

> So, this happened. I couldn't think of anything poetic or vastly majestic with a wings AU so, I went the literal way. Why pigeons? I raise the bar with why not pigeons. Anyways, to anyone that reads this, thank-you. 
> 
> Square Fill: Wings AU

He woke up to warm sunlight, the air itself had been light and with a hint of moisture that promised for a future shower to appear. The clouds had been getting longer and denser. It still didn’t stop him from blinking awake, the day after all, had barely started.

With the dense background noise filtering in and out, Tony stretched out his wings as reflex. It had felt good to soak in the sunlight while it was beaming down his spot. After a quick, but still very thorough preening session Tony had descended from his nest in search for food and looking out for news about how his block was going from the usual crowd he met up with occasionally.

Everything had been going smoothly when he heard it: the loud hissing from a street cat.

That had instinctively made him tense. His wings immediately angled themselves to spread out and let his muscle memory hitch for an evasive escape. The clutter of trash bins falling and the flutter of screams from another pair of pigeons made it feel as if his heart could have been vomited out from his own body. He had been airborne and safely away from the attention of the cat, but when he noticed a trail of blood and broken wings from the one male pigeon Tony made eye contact with the partner. One of her legs had been broken badly, with barely functioning wings to escape.

She cooed in a strangled plea for him to look after her eggs before diving to peck the cat to let go of her mate. It didn’t end well for her. The cat had, by the end, two bird carcasses. She took to start preparing them for her own batch of children.

Tony should have fled from the scene. Should have ignored the memory of a pair of parents that failed to protect their young defenseless eggs. But when he looked over to their nest he knew he couldn’t. He had felt the urge to sit there to protect them. His stomach had been fed prior to his reckless decision. But it still had made him wary.

When the cat family left, he still had been sitting there. Pondering if he should nest there or risk making another one and transporting them. As the lights flickered again to lighten the city Tony had made his final decision.

Only one egg survived throughout his care. But Tony had been just happy to have endured the whole trial and cooed happily when he heard the first crack. He had waited patiently, had food prepared and spread his wings over the nest when he felt a gust of air hit their spot.

A small wet wing came out first, then a foot. And when the whole egg shell eventually cracked open for him to come out, Tony’s heart fluttered when his squab called out to him.

“I’m here.” He gently whispered to him as he cleaned him up. “I’m here.”

The change from having to look after an egg to then a living breathing and pecking squab that wanted his attention twenty-four seven was a severe change. His bachelor days were now filled with one energetic squab that loved to chatter when he wasn’t being fed, who always had a streak of recklessness of going to the edge of their nest to greet humans and others that passed them. The same one who forgot to preen his feathers since Tony did it most of the time.

His kid will be the death of him.

“Dad! DaD! DAD! Are you listening?”

Tony had once again been fixing Peter’s wings as his kid loved to mess them up during his excitement of chattering with the birds that lived inside the apartment their nest was close to. His friendly behavior had given Tony plenty of heart attacks when he had interacted with some of the humans too when they took photos or videos of them. Tony could only let them get so close to his kid.

“I’m listening. The hamster, Ted” He ignored Peter correcting him, “from our window shared some of his snacks with you as you watched some program the humans were watching.”

“Yeah, it was weird but cool! Ned said the movie was from a long time ago and called Star Wars.” He stretched his wings and started to attempt to clean them by himself. “I don’t get why the humans picked that title. There weren’t any stars fighting in any of the wars at all. Just other people and other creatures.”

“Who knows Pete. Humans are weird.”

The day Peter had been old enough and had the strength to practice flying had been one of the scariest days for Tony.

Point blank, he was a menace. He had the calculations down, had preened his feathers just right to angle himself with the wind pickup; but his execution flopped. Thankfully, they still had been in a safe distance between the nest and the ground before Peter could fall to his death. It took a couple of tries for him to get comfortable in the air and having Tony close by to coach him.

He knew the day would come when Peter wouldn’t need him anymore. That he would fly off and make his own journey to find food, water and maybe find his own mate later on to start his own family. But for now, with his kid there still chattering and needing him Tony would cherish this moment.

“Dad! Look!” He looked so happy in the air. “I’m getting it! Soon I’ll be beating you when it comes to flying!”

“Maybe once you stop forgetting to preen your feathers before rushing to flap your wings.”

“DAd!”


End file.
